Blood group genetic variations in inhabitants of West New Guinea, with a map of the villages and linguistic groups of South West New Guinea

Abstract

The paper reports the blood group genetic variations found in 1479 individuals, mainly of 17 cultural and linguistic groups, in the ABO, MNS and Rh blood group system. The blood samples consisted of 913 from groups in the south, 422 from the Central Highlands region, and 144 from the northeastern part of the country near Lake Sentani and the Cyclops Mountains.The results of all surveys in West New Guinea in which the ABO, MNS and Rh blood groups were determined have been tabulated.Wide variations in gene frequencies were found for A, B, n, S, R1 and R2. No example of subgroup A2 was detected. Remarkably high values for A of 0.36 and 0.41 were found in the Sarmi and Wakde of the northern area. The frequency of B reached an unusually high value of 0.3938 in the Mulia region of the Western Dani (central area), while in other Dani populations B values were also relatively high. In the Sarmi region in the north B was 0.335 in the Baudji and 0.02 in the Wakde.The n frequencies were all high with values reaching 0.97–0.98 in southern, central and northern areas. S of MNS varied from 0 to 50% in phenotype values; however, in the central area and in parts of the northern area the S gene was absent, or present only in very low values. The genotype mS was found in Samarckema and in Pionier‐Bivak natives of the Mamberamo region (northern area).Values for R1 reached 0.996 in Asmat (southern area), 0.980 in Dani, Baliem Valley, Pyramid (central area), 0.98 in Martewar, Ferkami, Teba and 0.99 in Takar and Mamberamo (northern area). The phenotype RH0 was found only twice, and then in Sentani (northern area). The gene Rz was detected in three southern series, in two central series, and in two northern series. Rh0(Du) variants of “high‐grade” and “low‐grade” were found in northern and in southern series.Possible reasons for the wide gene frequency variations found in the same linguistic group, in different groups in the same area, and in all the indigenous peoples of the southern, central and northern areas are discussed.A comprehensive map of South West New Guinea showing all linguistic groups and the sites in 1963 of all villages is appended to the paper. This map covers one of the areas whose blood groups are reported in the paper, but includes many more villages and linguistic groups than those from which bleedings were obtained.

On the decline and etiology of high-incidence motor system disease in West Papua (southwest New Guinea)

“…Fewer wounds requiring heavy use of a cycad poultice likely accompanied the evolution of the Auyu from hutan ‐bound hunter‐gatherers to a village‐bound existence. More importantly, perhaps, the ulcerative skin disease of yaws, described by Simmons and colleagues34 as once abundantly present in children in this region, seems to have disappeared, as have large tropical ulcers, both of which were probable candidates for cycad topical treatment, as described elsewhere by Obendorf and Spencer 35. The development of simple agriculture and provision of small animals may also have resulted in an improved nutritional state.…”

Antibodies to HTLV‐I in populations of the southwestern Pacific

“…Since there was consistent, if not ideal, overall agreement between ELISA, ATLA, and immunoblotting, we felt confident that ELISA was adequate to identify populations with high and low prevalences of serum antibodies to HTLV-I, although not to attempt more sophisticated analyses such as those of household clustering [Kazura et aI., 19871. Gajdusek, 1963;Simmons et al, 1958Gajdusek et al, 1972Tesh et al, 1975Curtain et al, 1965Gajdusek et al, 1972 Adels andGajdusek, 1963;Curtain et al, 1965;Gajdusek et al, 1972 Coker-Vann et al, 198 1 ;Garruto et al, 1974;Simmons et al, 1967 Adels and Gajdusek, 1963;Simmons et al, 1967Curtain et al, 1965 Fig. 2.…”

Mitochondrial DNA variability of West New Guinea populations

“…A number of genetic studies (mainly blood group surveys) have been performed on various WNG populations (De Nijenhuis and Van der Hoeven, 1956;Nijenhuis et al, 1960Nijenhuis et al, , 1966Simmons et al, 1967;Gajdusek et al, 1978;Cortivo et al, 1987;Tommaseo et al, 1992). While genetic marker distribution in WNG fits into the broadest frame of New Guinean and Melanesian populations, the particular frequency of some alleles and the high variability found even within a single linguistic group may be attributed to genetic drift or to unusual events (bottlenecks).…”